In order to effectively plan for the deprecation of some of the external data methods, we collected anonymized data from Collect over the last eight months. Here are the findings...
7,800 unique forms with external data
The method break down is as follows:
- 4,100 unique forms IDs using pulldata()
- 2,000 unique form IDs forms using external itemsets
- 3,600 unique forms IDs using search()
Across the data set, there were 7,800 unique form IDs. This is less than the sum of all form IDs because some forms likely used both pulldata() and search().
pulldata dominates the per question events
The three methods were called 82.6 million times. The percentages:
- pulldata(): 90%
- external itemsets: 5%
- search(): 5%
pulldata() tends to be used multiple times in a form which is why it dominates these events.
pulldata has the majority of per form events
There were 5.4 million unique method/form ID pairings. The percentages:
- pulldata(): 61%
- external itemsets: 23%
- search(): 15%
I interpret this data to mean that most forms use pulldata, but external itemsets and search are pretty popular.
Conclusions
We did not track how many unique form IDs are used in Collect to compare the 7,800 figure against, but it doesn't feel like a small number to me. If we want to deprecate these methods, we need to give people lots of time to make the transition.